Times of India: New Delhi: Sunday, August 06, 2017.
In an order
aimed at increasing transparency in defence procurement, the central
information commission has said informing vendors of the reasons for withdrawal
or rejection of proposals would go a long way in making the process more
accountable.
Information
commissioner Divya Prakash Sinha has noted that scams and kickbacks reported in
the public domain made it necessary to make procurements as transparent as
possible.
Sinha was
ruling in an appeal before the CIC filed by an appellant who wanted details of
a tender that had been floated by defence ministry , and the policy adopted
regarding return of equipment before convening of the contracts negotiation
committee (CNC). Sinha, while agreeing with the public information officer's
contention that the information could not be shared under section 8(1)(d) of
the RTI Act, however held that the section 8(1)(d), concerning provisions for
protection of trade secrets or intellectual property rights, required a closer
look.
"Commission
is of the considered opinion that there should be greater transparency and
accountability in the process of defence procurement, in as much as the vendors
should be apprised of the reason for withdrawal of proposals or rejection of proposals,"
Sinha said. He said that "more and more disclosure should be encouraged in
such cases to avoid casting aspersions on the procurement process".
Sinha cited
the defence ministry's procurement policy , which stipulates that compliance or
otherwise, vis-a-vis the request for proposal parameters, would be communicated
to all vendors at trial location itself. The appellant had asked for data on a
project being helmed by PMO Suraj, the nodal agency in Army for managing all
projects of electronic warfare (EW) systems.
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